Sunday, 11 November 2012

Thank You Suaad Hagi Mohamud.

The federal government has spent more than $1.5 million in legal costs defending itself against a lawsuit filed in 2009 by a Toronto mother who was stranded in Kenya for nearly three months because immigration officials thought she was an impostor.{...}

Postmedia News has learned the case was finally settled out of court within the last six months. While the terms of the settlement are confidential, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson did reveal this week the total cost of the case.

If you've forgotten who Suaad Hagi Mohamud is you can read about her here.

I still hold she was trying to defraud Canada's immigration system and sneak her sister into the country.

Defrauding the immigration system of western countries is a penchant of Somalis and east Africans in general. For example the U.S. discovered in 2008 that it was the target of wide spread immigration fraud by east Africans, chief among them Somalis.

The State Department has suspended a humanitarian program to reunite thousands of African refugees with relatives in the U.S. after unprecedented DNA testing by the government revealed widespread fraud.

The freeze affects refugees in Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Guinea and Ghana, many of whom have been waiting years to emigrate. The State Department says it began DNA testing with a pilot program launched in February to verify blood ties among African refugees. Tests found some applicants lied about belonging to the same family to gain a better chance at legal entry.{...}

In February, the State Department launched pilot testing in Kenya to verify family relationships, mainly among Somalis. When applicants arrived for a previously scheduled appointment, a U.S. official asked them to volunteer for a DNA test.

An expert then swabbed the cheek of those who claimed biological relationships, such as a mother and her purported children.

The cell samples were sent to labs in the U.S. for analysis.

As word spread, some applicants began missing appointments, and others refused to cooperate.

Laboratory analysis of the samples indicated a large portion of applicants weren't blood relations, as they claimed. "The results were dismaying," says Ms. Strack. "This told us we had a problem with the program."

The results prompted expansion of the testing to other countries. "We had high rates of fraud everywhere, except the Ivory Coast," says a State Department official.

If the U.S. immigration system was being subjected to this deceitful behaviour it stands to reason Canada's immigration system was being subjected to it as well.

It's conceivable Suaad Hagi Mohamud was doing what her fellow Somalis were doing. It may very well be that the woman she was trying to sneak into Canada wasn't even her sister at all but someone who looked like her and offered her a cash reward to get her into the country.

What's irksome is how the media cast her as the victim while the government was cast as the villain even though it was only safeguarding the integrity of Canadian citizenship with good reason; and even though it's possible the woman was very well trying to scam us. We shouldn't lose sight of the fact that he woman jailed by the Kenyans may not have been the same woman who showed up for DNA testing since the testing wasn't conducted until after she was released on bail.

The details of the settlement will remain confidential though we as taxpayers deserve to know. We do know she didn't get the $2.6 million she was after. Indeed, she may have only received a pittance since it's likely most of the $1.5 million cost went to legal fees. In my view she doesn't deserve a scent and frankly if evidence does exist she was engaging in an act of immigration fraud she should be stripped of her citizenship and deported.

Likely encouraged by the Maher Arar affair - itself an event that generates questions that if answered could reveal the man to be a liar and undeserving of his handsome taxpayer funded cash payout - she swung for the fences and sought to take Canadians to the bank. Were she a smarter woman she should have made up a torture story to go along with it. Why not? Who's going to question her about it? The media?

Ultimately Canadians are out $1.5 million due to the shenanigans of a Somali woman who thought to make Canada her personal ATM. That's $1.5 million that could have gone to more productive means and fund services that benefited a wider scope of Canadians instead of entertain the selfish pursuits of an immigrant woman.